342 RECREATIONS OF A NATURALIST 



For our present purpose it remains only to 

 ascertain what has been recorded on good authority 

 of the measurements and weight of the largest 

 species of Albatross {Diomedia exulans). It is 

 found throughout the Southern Ocean, and is 

 seldom met with further north than lat. 30° S., 

 although stragglers have from time to time been 

 reported as occurring beyond that limit. The 

 literature relating to this bird is very extensive, so 

 much so, indeed, that it will be necessary to pass 

 over many facts of interest concerning it, in order 

 to confine attention to the only two points which 

 have any bearing on the present inquiry, namely, 

 dimensions and weight. 



Here is a good observation of the kind needed 

 by the late Dr George Bennett, of Sydney. In 

 his Gatherings of a Naturalist in Australasia 

 (i860, p. 72), he writes : — 



"On June 8, in lat. 2>T 15' S., long. 16° 27' E., 

 we captured the unusual number of seven speci- 

 mens of the great Wandering Albatross. They 

 were elegant birds of large size, with fine and 

 shining plumage, but were quite helpless and stupid 

 when brought on board. The size of the largest 

 was as follows : Length from the base of the bill 

 to the extremity of the tail, 3 feet. 10 in. ; size of 

 the expanded wings, 11 feet 8 in. In others the 

 extended pinions measured from 10 feet 4 in. to 

 1 1 feet ; indeed, I consider 1 1 feet the gfeneral 

 measurement. I have met with only one specimen 

 in which the spread of wings measured 14 feet. 

 The difference of sexes did not, in any of these 



